Artist Statement

My art utilizes soft sculpture, reused materials, found objects, embroidery, and memory to embody and convey issues of power through several topics: male dominance, female insecurity, female/child identity, trauma, and education. I have chosen embroidery as my primary medium because, “It is the bearer of women’s soul” (Parker, p. 15). It allows me to express my deepest negative thoughts in a graffiti-like way by purging them from my mind on to a penetrable surface. My embroidered messages affirm the experiences that have shaped me as the person who I was and have come to be. My anger and feelings toward the molders of my existence is, “…expressed yet safely concealed in the stabbing satin stitches (Parker, p. 213). As I stitch, I remember, reflect, and release (sometimes harbor) the emotions attached to these memories.

Conversations With Me

"Conversations with Me" - 2015

(Bed Sheets, Embroidery Thread, Polyfill, Cotton Fabric)

My current study is a family of embroidered dolls: the family is mine. Shown in the photographs are sculptures of me, my mother, and my father. (My brothers are under construction.) “Conversations with Me”, serves as a personal narrative depicting male/female dominance and influences on my life from my preteen years throughout my twenties. This is a critical time in a female’s life when one is establishing a sense of self and self worth. I use traditional embroidery to convey the negative words uttered to me by my mother, father, brothers, past boyfriends, and lovers: people who shaped who I was during a pivotal time in my life. Traumatic experiences I encountered with outsiders also speak volumes through the stitching. Embroidery provides a vehicle for dealing with highly ambivalent, complex feelings provoked by a significant other (Parker, 213). Embroidering these dolls has allowed me the time to reflect on my early influences, the psychological impact they had on me, and how I have developed as a strong and determined woman today. The purpose of my artwork is for people to relate to it in a way that helps them remember similar traumatic experiences, to heal from those experiences and to become aware of negative male dominance women still encounter today.

Conversations With Me - Mom

"Conversations with Me" - 2015

(Bed Sheets, Embroidery Thread, Polyfill, Cotton Fabric)

My current study is a family of embroidered dolls: the family is mine. Shown in the photographs are sculptures of me, my mother, and my father. (My brothers are under construction.) “Conversations with Me”, serves as a personal narrative depicting male/female dominance and influences on my life from my preteen years throughout my twenties. This is a critical time in a female’s life when one is establishing a sense of self and self worth. I use traditional embroidery to convey the negative words uttered to me by my mother, father, brothers, past boyfriends, and lovers: people who shaped who I was during a pivotal time in my life. Traumatic experiences I encountered with outsiders also speak volumes through the stitching. Embroidery provides a vehicle for dealing with highly ambivalent, complex feelings provoked by a significant other (Parker, 213). Embroidering these dolls has allowed me the time to reflect on my early influences, the psychological impact they had on me, and how I have developed as a strong and determined woman today. The purpose of my artwork is for people to relate to it in a way that helps them remember similar traumatic experiences, to heal from those experiences and to become aware of negative male dominance women still encounter today.

Conversations With Me - Dad

"Conversations with Me" - 2015

(Bed Sheets, Embroidery Thread, Polyfill, Cotton Fabric)

My current study is a family of embroidered dolls: the family is mine. Shown in the photographs are sculptures of me, my mother, and my father. (My brothers are under construction.) “Conversations with Me”, serves as a personal narrative depicting male/female dominance and influences on my life from my preteen years throughout my twenties. This is a critical time in a female’s life when one is establishing a sense of self and self worth. I use traditional embroidery to convey the negative words uttered to me by my mother, father, brothers, past boyfriends, and lovers: people who shaped who I was during a pivotal time in my life. Traumatic experiences I encountered with outsiders also speak volumes through the stitching. Embroidery provides a vehicle for dealing with highly ambivalent, complex feelings provoked by a significant other (Parker, 213). Embroidering these dolls has allowed me the time to reflect on my early influences, the psychological impact they had on me, and how I have developed as a strong and determined woman today. The purpose of my artwork is for people to relate to it in a way that helps them remember similar traumatic experiences, to heal from those experiences and to become aware of negative male dominance women still encounter today.

Mediocre

﻿"Mediocre" - 2014

(Clear Vinyl, Red Burlap, Embroidery Thread, Clear Trash Bags)

The word "Mediocre" is used when something is of low quality, value, ability or performance. It signifies a certain lower status. We have all felt at one time or another that we have done a "mediocre" job. We can feel mediocre when we are compared to others in how we have completed a job, and often how successful our friends are in life at that things they have achieve but perhaps we have not.

My doll suffocates in mediocrity. The small inner doll is trapped inside a larger doll and in fear of always being mediocre at the things she does.

The Power of Poverty in Education

The Power of Poverty in Education (Quilt) depicts how poverty and trauma experienced by numerous children in America affects their learning both in and out of school. Quotes emerging from the amorphous figures on the quilt are actual words students have relayed to me in my various classrooms over the course of my 20 years in teaching. Hearing the words of these children has made me imagine the feelings they may be harboring inside their minds. Embroidered words on their bodies convey those feelings. The "figures", with words such as failure, mediocre, peon, and corrupted are float in space on the quilt in a kind of helpless, floundering manner. The figures do not know how to escape their label. In listening to children’s negative experiences, they appear to be “labeled” early on through interactions with their parents, teachers, or the community in which they live; it's the power of words, actions, experiences and economics that have shaped them as individuals. The quilt itself is a contrast to their lives and symbolizes warmth, comfort, and security - something the children do not have. Embroidered statistics and images throughout the quilt confirm the reality these children face: lack of adequate food and shelter, poor government funding for schools, and lack of parental support. The quilted hands surrounding the bodies reach in and around them for help that is scarcely received.

Hoops of Power and Protest

Hoops of Power and Protest, 2015

(Embroidery Hoops, Cotton Fabric Remnants, Embroidery Thread)

"Hoops of Power" embodies the notion of resistance and power around the world. Numerous symbols unite people in protest for various reasons from speaking out for democracy to opposing racism. Whatever the reason, one symbol can provide a group of people with enough power to create change in the world as they band together under one common cause.

#43- 43 is the number of students who went missing in September 2014,in Iguala, Mexico on their way to a protest and never seen again. The Mexican government said that a local drug cartel had confessed to killing the students, but people believe the government had a part in it. Protesters have painted "43," the number of students who went missing, on walls, on their faces and on protest banners. The missing students immediately became a symbol of the country’s security crisis.

Hands Up - The fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in August of 2014, sparked weeks of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. An eyewitness described Brown raising his hands in the air before he was killed. The gesture of surrender, with the accompanying slogan "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," together became a symbol of the nation's outrage at brutal police tactics and racial inequality.

Cube - The people’s cube is on first sight solid and immovable from every way that you look at it. It has the simplicity and latent strength of a perfect molecular structure. Though in this case the molecules bonding together are symbolic of people standing together with their arms locked to form a symbol of strength and unity.

Clenched Fist - The raised fist (also known as the clenched fist) is a symbol of solidarity and support. It is also used as a salute to express unity, strength, defiance, or resistance. The salute dates back to ancient Assyria as a symbol of resistance in the face of violence.

Four Finger Salute - Morsi supporters use the four-finger symbol to remember the sit-in protest at Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque in July of 2013.

Umbrella - In September 2014, students and opposition protesters in Hong Kong began staging sit-ins to demand that China retract its plan to vet candidates for the territory's first leadership election. When Hong Kong's police tried to beat them back with tear gas and pepper spray, the protesters shielded themselves with umbrellas, creating a lasting symbol of peaceful defiance.

#FundOurSchool

This most recent quilt is a collaborative piece created with several of my educator colleagues, (Angie Castaldy, Selena Dickey, Jayne Hall, and Jennifer Linthicum), for the Virginia #Red4Ed March on Richmond on Jan. 28th of this year. The quilt was exhibited in the gathering crowds at Monroe Park in Richmond and then marched to the Capitol Steps, where it was displayed and photographed. It was created to further a dialogue with the public about the lack of funding for Virginia schools over the past decade in terms of teacher pay, poor working conditions, support staff, and supplies for students.